BROOKLYN, NY – Following today’s sole public hearing on the redistricting process mandated by the New York Court of Appeals, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries issued the below statement. On Monday, Rep. Jeffries wrote to Judge Patrick McAllister asking him to immediately schedule additional hearings on the process at sites accessible to all New Yorkers. He never received a response. 

“The flawed and unfair redistricting process will lead to a flawed and unfair redistricting result. The so-called public hearing in the remote Village of Bath was utterly inaccessible to the vast majority of New Yorkers, particularly downstate Black, Latino and Asian-American communities. It took place 300 miles away from New York City, with no option for virtual participation or reasonable way to travel to Steuben County. The so-called public hearing featured very little public testimony, as compared with volumes of citizen and community input leading up to the creation of the congressional map signed into law by Governor Kathy Hochul.

The right-wing special interest groups who successfully agitated to throw out the enacted legislative and congressional maps spent their time at the hearing relying on dubious analysis by a serial political hack who has consistently targeted communities of color and their needs. The New York State Court of Appeals and the Special Master must open up the redistricting process and hold additional public hearings to avoid disenfranchising the Black, Latino and Asian-American residents I am privileged to represent.”